This application is based on Japanese Patent Applications No. 2001-376998 filed on Dec. 11, 2001, No. 2001-393920 filed on Dec. 26, 2001, and No. 2002-215232 filed on Jul. 24, 2002, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle air conditioner with a rotary door having a circumference wall surface, rotated around a rotation shaft, for opening and closing plural air outlet openings.
2. Description of Related Art
In a vehicle air conditioner, plural air outlet openings through which conditioned air is blown into a passenger compartment are opened and closed by a single rotary door formed into a semi-cylindrical shape. In this case, an air outlet mode such as a face mode, a foot mode and a defroster mode is set by rotation of the rotary door. Accordingly, the operation angle of the rotary door becomes larger, and the size of an air conditioning unit of the air conditioner is increased. For example, when the rotary door is disposed above a heater core for heating air, the vertical dimension of the air conditioning unit of the vehicle air conditioner becomes larger.
In view of the above-described problems, it is an object of the present invention to reduce a size of an air conditioning unit in a vehicle air conditioner in which plural air-outlet opening portions are opened and closed by a single rotary door.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle air conditioner having an improvement structure of an air-outlet mode switching portion, which prevents interference between the rotary door and a heating heat exchanger, while a size of an air conditioning unit of the vehicle air conditioner can be reduced.
According to the present invention, in an air conditioning unit of a vehicle air conditioner, an air conditioning case for defining an air passage has a plurality of opening portions through which air is blown toward different zones in a passenger compartment, a heat exchanging portion having at least a heating heat exchanger for heating air is disposed in the air conditioning case, and a rotary door is disposed in the air conditioning case at an upper side of the heat exchanging portion to be rotated in a range of a rotation space provided in the air conditioning case. The rotary door has a circumference wall surface rotatable around a rotation shaft to open and close the opening portions, and the rotation space is provided in the air conditioning case to extend from an upper portion of the heating heat exchanger to a side portion of the heating heat exchanger. Accordingly, a dimension between the heating heat exchanger and the rotary door can be set smaller.
Preferably, the heating heat exchanger is arranged in the air conditioning case in a direction crossing with a horizontal surface. Accordingly, the rotation space extending from the upper side of the heating heat exchanger to the side portion of the heating heat exchanger can be made larger, and an outer diameter of the rotary door can be made larger, so that the operation angle of the rotary door for opening and closing the opening portions can be set smaller. Thus, the dimension between the heating heat exchanger and the rotary door can be further reduced. The rotation space of the rotary door can extend to a position proximate to a lower end portion of the heating heat exchanger.
The opening portions include a foot opening through which air is blown toward a lower side in the passenger compartment, a face opening through which air is blown toward an upper side in the passenger compartment, and a defroster opening through which air is blown toward an inner surface of a windshield of the vehicle. In this case, preferably, the rotary door further includes a plate door member disposed at a radial inner side of the circumference wall surface to be integrally rotated with the circumference wall surface, and the rotary door is disposed such that the face opening and the defroster opening are opened and closed by the circumference wall surface, and the foot opening is opened and closed by the plate door member. Therefore, a circumference length of the circumference wall surface can be made smaller, and the size of the air conditioning unit can be further reduced.
Preferably, the air conditioning case has a maximum passage dimension (L) at an upstream side of the rotary door in a direction perpendicular to an axial direction of the rotation shaft, and the rotary door has an outer diameter (D) equal to or larger than 0.8 times of the maximum passage dimension. More preferably, rotary door has an outer diameter (D) larger than the maximum passage dimension. In this case, the space dimension between the heating heat exchanger and the rotary door can be further effectively reduced.
Further, the heating heat exchanger is disposed in the air conditioning case to form a cool air bypass passage through which air bypasses the heating heat exchanger, the air conditioning case includes a guide member which guides at least one of air passing through the cool air bypass passage to an upper side of the heating heat exchanger and air passing through the heating heat exchanger to the upper side of the heating heat exchanger, and the rotation shaft is disposed at a lower side from a top end of the guide member. Accordingly, even when the outer diameter of the rotary door is made larger, the rotary door can be readily rotated without interference.
Preferably, the heating heat exchanger is disposed in the air conditioning case in a range of the outer diameter of the rotary door at a lower side position of the rotation shaft, to be offset from a rotation locus of the rotary door. Accordingly, interference between the rotary door and the heating heat exchanger can be prevented while the size of the air conditioning unit can be reduced.